If a Marine landing on Red Beach at Camp
Pendleton travels off one of the three authorized roads leaving
the beach, he risks a $50,000 fine and other penalties. He's
not being disciplined for putting himself or his fellow soldiers
at risk. Instead, he damaged the nesting area of the California
least tern, a seabird protected by the Endangered Species Act
(ESA).1

Camp Pendleton is home to 17 plants and
animals considered endangered by the federal government.2 Regulations
protecting them and their habitats cripple Marine training. In
2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tried to label 56 percent
of Camp Pendleton and 65 percent of neighboring Miramar Air Station
(the home of "Top Gun") as critical endangered species
habitat, thereby putting it off-limits to training.3

When a compromise was reached to allow
training to continue in many areas, environmentalists filed a
lawsuit to enforce the original restrictions.4

Camp Pendleton and Miramar are not isolated
cases:

Mechanized units from Ft. Irwin cannot
train in the Mojave Desert at night because they might run over
a desert tortoise. Combat operations in Iraq are happening mostly
at night.5

At Ft. Lewis, 72 percent of training
land is critical habitat for the northern spotted owl even though
none are known to live there.6

Despite studies showing it posed minimal
danger to sea life, a court ordered the Navy to work with environmentalists
to determine how and when sensor equipment developed to track
quiet diesel submarines - like those owned by North Korea - could
be used for training.7

Navy SEALs at Coronado Island practice
beach landings in specific areas so they don't disturb nesting
areas of the western plover and California least tern. For up
to seven months a year, practice areas can shrink by 40 percent
due to the presence of the snowy plover.8

Only 17 percent of Ft. Hood isn't restricted
by federal regulation. The Clean Water Act makes digging illegal
on 70 percent of the post. The Clean Air Act prohibits smoke,
flares and other pyrotechnics on 25 percent. Camouflage netting
cannot be used on 40 percent because of golden-cheeked warblers
and black-capped vireos, and other ESA concerns restrict vehicles
to paved roads between March and August.9

With our armed forces engaged in combat
in the Persian Gulf and at risk in the Korea Peninsula, Afghanistan
and elsewhere, the possibility they are without effective training
is unsettling.

Their commanders aren't intentionally
putting them in danger. Our military is quite possibly the best
the world has ever seen, but forcing soldiers to use the same
fields and roads or scaling back training exercises to comply
with environmental regulations can create a familiarity that may
betray soldiers in chaotic battlefield situations.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Wayne Arny recently told Congress: "Before our nation sends
it most valuable asset - our men and women, our sons and daughters
- into harm's way, we owe it to them and the American public to
prepare them as best as we can to fight, survive and win. That
starts with realistic and comprehensive training with the best
equipment available."10 But, according to Marine Colonel Bennett W.
Saylor, quoted last year at Camp Pendleton, "There are certain
standards in our training and readiness manuals that we cannot
conduct."11

In response, the Pentagon wants more leeway.
With White House approval, the 2004 defense spending bill includes
a reinterpretation of five major environmental regulations - including
the ESA and Clean Air Act.12

This doesn't mean soldiers at Ft. Lewis
can declare war on the spotted owl or the Navy can intentionally
harm whales with sonar. It does mean responsible-yet-realistic
battlefield training can resume in areas where it is currently
banned. The fact that endangered species seem to flock to military
bases is a testament the Pentagon's stewardship of the land is
owns. In 2003, the military allocated over $4 billion for environmental
projects.13

When it comes of the safety of those who
would lay down their lives for our freedoms here in the United
States, we can surely make compromises. We owe them no less.

# # #

David Almasi is executive director
of The National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington,
D.C. think tank. Comments may be sent to [email protected].

Footnotes

1 Gidget Fuentes, "Marines
Tackle Complex Limitations at Camp Pendleton," North County
Times, July 1, 2002; March 2003 interview of Mike Collier, director
of training at Camp Pendleton, who told the author that Marines
training on Red Beach are told in advance to keep away from the
vegetated areas and stay on prescribed exit paths. Should a Marine
drive, dig or similarly upset the vegetated areas, he is considered
to be in violation of orders from his superior and subject to
both military discipline and the federal penalties related to
disruption of critical habitat.

2 Ibid.

3 Testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary (Installations and Facilities)
Wayne Arny, U.S. Navy, before the U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Readiness, Armed Services Committee, Washington,
D.C., March 13, 2003.

4 Ibid.

5 "EPW Fact of the Day: Oblivious," e-mail communication,
Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate, March
7, 2003.

6 "Operation End Extremism," e-mail communication, Committee
on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate, March 17, 2003.